KNEELING AS AN ACT OF WORSHIP
To help us fully understand the significance of this act of worship, let us start by considering three ‘nots’ and facts of the kneeling posture.
(1) The kneeling posture does not confer dignity on the one that adopts it, nor project for him an air of respectability. The kneeling one appears lower than and subject to the one before whom he kneels.
(2) Kneeling is not a fighter’s posture, and the kneeler is disadvantaged with respect to the one that stands or sits, because he is without the full benefit of his normal means of mobility – his feet. The kneeler is in fact incapacitated.
(3) It is not a comfortable posture, ordinarily, and one usually adopts it either under coercion or compelled by the dictates of an activity that requires closeness to the ground and for which other postures prove unhelpful or inconvenient. In other words, we do not kneel unless we have to.
Standing tall is not necessarily a function of height. The kneeler in worship has let go of his sense of dignity and pride, has decided to discard every false sense of self-worth as he approaches the great throne of the Almighty King. He recognizes how insignificant he must be in comparison to the one whose throne is heaven and whose mere footstool the earth is, and he knows that in this place of inescapable diminution, the only way to go is down. The kneeling worshiper has simply wisely adopted a posture appropriate to his perception of his relative status.
The worshiping kneeler has quit fighting. He has surrendered to his conqueror and king, and has willfully placed himself in a disadvantaged position of demobilization. He has sacked his restless feet, assigning them no more function than helping to balance him up in his new submissive posture. The kneeler says to his master, “Let your will be done, not mine.”
The knelt worshiper says by the act that he rates appropriately expressive worship higher than the more convenient alternatives his hurting knees might be recommending. He has resolved to pay the price to be right. His knees upon the ground express his determination to do whatever it takes, bear whatever pain is required, endure every inconvenience, to bring his master His due of worship.
Kneeling brings in an air of seriousness into a worship session. It confers a sense of importance and gravity upon our time with the Great One. WHEN A MAN BENDS THE KNEE, WE KNOW HE MEANS BUSINESS!
From the book ‘Guidebook For Worship Leaders’.
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